Up at 7 a.m., but skipped my exercises, so I could get ready to go to the fairgrounds for Senior Day at the fair. The event was scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and we arrived around 9:30, where I got my exercise pushing Mother around the fairgrounds in her wheelchair. Hubbie would be glad to push the wheelchair, but Mother feels more comfortable with me doing it.
The first thing we did was tour the women's building and the horticulture shed. In the women's building, as far as we could tell, we garnered mainly blue ribbons, including our place settings. The Grand Champion in that category was a set of gold- rimmed dishes, with gold candlesticks, etc.
The nicest surprise was that Mother won a Grand Champion award for her pint jar of dried green onions. Mother was so excited when she saw the ribbon, and she continued to be thrilled all afternoon.
We didn't fare as well in the horticulture shed, though we did okay. All the tomatoes but one batch got blue ribbons. That one variety got a red ribbon, though we can't figure out why. My garden basket got a blue ribbon. A similar basket with a greater variety of veggies took the Grand Champion award.
All the potted and hanging plants got blue ribbons. Of the twenty-four cut flowers, sixteen won blue ribbons, the rest got red ones. My floral arrangement got a blue ribbon, while a vase of tall, showy flowers won Best of Show.
After touring the women's building, we went through the air conditioned commercial building and registered for all the prizes. For this, we used address labels, and then jotted our telephone numbers on the entry slips...lots easier than having to fill out the slips by hand.
In this building, we met the man who recently won a million dollars in the lottery. I congratulated him, and he commented that after the government took its share, $600,000 remained. "Well, it's more than you had the day before!" I exclaimed, and he agreed. I don't think I'd have any complaints if I came into $600,000, but some people resent the government in every way.
The senior activities were held in the open entertainment shed, where it was beastly hot, even under cover of a roof. A scant crowd showed up this morning, no doubt due to the extreme heat. The seats are usually full, but today only about sixty folks were there. Of those folks, a couple suffered heat exhaustion and had to leave early.
Added to that, the musical entertainment group failed to show up. Since they were a no-show, the senior citizen director got things underway by conducting the door prize drawing early. In the past, we've won at least a couple of prizes at the event, but not this year.
Following the drawing, lunch was served. We decided to bring ours home to enjoy in the comfort of air conditioning. The meal of chicken salad sandwiches, broccoli salad, baked chips, mixed fruit dessert, and 2% milk was pretty good this year. Often in the past, they've served meals with a plenitude of yellow cheese that I couldn't eat. We added grape tomatoes to our meals, and drank water instead of the milk. The milk went to the fridge for later.
At the event, too, someone was giving out samples of sorghum molasses, served on big, fluffy biscuits. Mother and I passed on those, but Hubbie brought three home for later. The biscuits look like something I don't need to eat, so he can have my share.
The fellow with the sorghum gave a talk about the process of making the molasses, but we were occupied in the commercial building at the time...not that we have any interest in making it, anyway.
Oddities at the fair this year: saw one of the groundskeepers on a maintenance vehicle ride past with a lemur on his shoulder. And in a corral, there is a camel, along with some donkeys and goats. Folks can pay to ride the camel. The other animals are for petting, I guess.
Back home, just as we finished lunch, the roadside vendor called to say she had fresh-picked local peaches for sale, if we wanted to come see them. We did, and bought a half bushel. They are nice looking freestones that are still a little firm. They'll be ready to eat in a a few days. We'll put some of them in the freezer next week. The vendor said that due to extremes in weather this year, peaches are at a premium, and there won't be many more.
We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. For supper, we had a leftover pasta dish from the freezer, with coleslaw, cottage cheese, grape tomatoes from the garden, and sourdough bread.
Mother went home afterward, and Hubbie and I watched the 2002 movie, "K-19, the Widowmaker," starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. Inspired by a true story, when a Russian nuclear submarine malfunctions, the crew must scramble to save the vessel and prevent a nuclear disaster.
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